The Anunnaki are a group of deities of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. They are not a species of reptilian humanoids, as some people believe. The name Anunnaki is derived from An, the Sumerian god of the sky, and it means "princely offspring" or "offspring of An". In the earliest Sumerian writings about them, the Anunnaki are deities in the pantheon, descendants of An and Ki, the god of the heavens and the goddess of earth, and their primary function was to decree the fates of humanity. They should not be confused with the Apkallu.
Akkadian texts of the second millennium BC follow similar portrayals of the Anunnaki from Inannas Descent into the Netherworld, depicting them as chthonic Underworld deities. In an abbreviated Akkadian version of Inannas Descent written in the early second millennium, Ereshkigal, the queen of the Underworld, comments that she "drink. Later in the same poem, Ereshkigal orders her servant Namtar to fetch the Anunnaki from Egalgina, to "decorate the threshold steps with coral", and to "seat them on golden thrones".
According to Sitchin, the Annunaki built the pyramids and all the other monumental structures from around the ancient world that ancient astronaut theorists consider so impossible to build. However, this claim is not supported by mainstream scholars.
